Australian Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India- Brisbane Inc. Newsletter: November 15, 2017 Volume 3, No 2 Committee Members Chairman: Surender Sharma surenqld@gmail.com Vice Chairman: Benno Parackal bennop@hotmail.com Secretary: Roshan Pokhrel roshanca@hotmail.com Treasurer: Bijay Agrawal bijay.agarwal@kramerausenco.com Member: Gayatree Mishra gayatreemishra@hotmail.com Member: Arvind Talan Arvind.Talan@mahindra.com.au Message from the Chairman Dear Fellow Professional, This is my final interaction with you as Chairman of our great Chapter. The forthcoming AGM will elect new committee and there shall be new leadership. I expect and am sure your expectation is also to see this Chapter growing to the next level and am confident that new committee shall keep working hard to make this chapter shine further. Along with other fellow dedicated members, I took responsibility in 2016 to lead the Brisbane Chapter. It was difficult but not impossible to revive the Chapter. We set our priorities to organize at least one activity every month and with so many dedicated members in management committee, we could achieve this target. Our professional friends understood and appreciated our actions and as a result, we had 36 paid members in 2016-17 and 42 so far in 2017-18 at the time I am writing this message. I am optimistic that this number will grow going forward and this chapter will provide our members a platform for networking, technical knowledge, friendship and also public speaking experience to those who wish to be resource persons. Better governance is required as any organization grows. We all shall have full faith in the committee that we elect in AGM. Positive discussions are always welcome and the best platform to discuss any issue are the management committee meeting. During my tenure, I have been highly impressed with many members for their commitment, contribution, dedication and selfless services for this chapter. I feel obliged to acknowledge contribution made by the team Benno Parackal for advice and producing quarterly newsletter, Roshan Pokhrel for taking responsibility with a smile, Kinjal Dhruv for looking after financials, Arvind Talan for prompt action and proactive support, Gayatree Mishra for creating and managing website and Bijay Agarwal for long association and looking after financials after Kinjal s resignation. Besides MC members, there have been many members who have wholeheartedly offered their services to the Chapter to discuss, deliberate and provide direction to the chapter in an informal way. Looking forward to meeting you all at the AGM on 24 th November. Best regards C.A. Surender Sharma
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR It gives me great pride to bring out the 5 th edition of the Chapter s Newsletter. Of course, this is possible only if we have activities to write about. Our current Chairman and the Management Committee have taken all efforts to ensure that there was no dearth of events to write about, be it a social occasion or a technical session. There is one person though who deserves a 21-gun salute for his commitment to the Chapter i.e. CA Arvind Talan. Be it an article for the newsletter or organizing/ attending an event, Arvind was always there. His poetic and writing skills are par excellence as you would have seen in the previous newsletters and this edition. Chapter News and activities Indian Independence Day Celebrations The Chapter celebrated India s 70 th Independence Day with great gusto at the Wellington Point Reserve on 13 th August, 2017. More than 40 people attended including family members. The event started with the recital of the Indian National Anthem, which brought back memories from our days in India. This was followed by games for all age groups and a sumptuous spread of food to eat. The event was organized by CA Arun Tanwar and CA Sandeep Dayal. Both Arun and Sandeep ensured that the event was well publicized on Facebook, Whatsapp and Email. They left no stone unturned to ensure that the event went off well without a hitch. The weather gods were in our favour too with the rains staying away. It is with mixed feelings that we bid farewell to him as he finishes his stint in Australia and heads back to his homeland. Look forward to seeing you ll in large numbers to wish him farewell and best wishes in the next phase of his journey at the AGM on 24 th November, 2017. It is also time to hand over the reins of the newsletter to another illustrious member, CA Sandeep Dayal. I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as Editor but as they say, Old must make way for the new. Till we meet again Benno Parackal Editor Networking an art or a task -CA Manju Kharel There is no denying the fact that networking skills has become as equally important as technical skills, if not more. Those who master the art of networking can get more advantages over those who lack this skill. The good news is, like any other soft skills, this can be learned and gets better with practice. The 22 nd September, 2017 session was dedicated to this non-technical topic. CA Benno Parackal, the serving Vice-Chairman of the Brisbane Chapter was the invited speaker for the event. He presented the importance of networking and shared the practical tips and tricks to master the skills of networking from his experience. Audience were excited to be a part of the engaging session and a paradigm shift from regular technical sessions organized by the Chapter.
The session began with light snacks and networking event for the first half hour. The actual presentation and discussion took place during the final two hours. As part of the session, the speaker made members to play an Icebreaker game in which the audiences had to pair up with another member of the audience least known to them and find out a common interest between the pair in a short time. Benno also discussed about the professional networking site LinkedIn. He demonstrated with his LinkedIn profile what can be done to make the LinkedIn profile look professional and what needs to be avoided. CA Rajeev Sharma presented the speaker with a token of appreciation. The session was then officially ended by the Chairman Surendra Sharma by thanking the speaker and audience members. The attending members were granted 2 CPE hours from ICAI. Update on International Taxation matters with focus on Australian/ Indian Tax issues - CA Arvind Talan The Chapter organized a session on "Update on International Taxation matters with focus on Australian/ Indian Tax issues" for its members on Wednesday 18 October 2017. The event was approved by ICAI and well publicized amongst the members through emails, WhatsApp and Facebook. The event was courteously organized by William Buck in their office at Queen Street, Brisbane. Chairman, CA Surender Sharma welcomed the speaker Mr Craig Barry, Director, Tax Services, William Buck and members who came all the way to attend the program on the eve of Indian festival of lights, Diwali. He informed the members that this was 3 rd program for the Chapter in association with William Buck and appreciated their wholehearted support. All suggestions and inputs to improve newsletter can be sent to the Editor at bennop@hotmail.com Craig started the session with Diwali festival greetings to all the attendees. During the session, Craig covered essential international tax issues, recent updates in the international tax space, and Australia/ India Tax matters including residency, source, transfer pricing, GST, summary of taxation in India, and case study. It was a very interactive session and Craig clarified many queries raised by the attendees during the session. On request of Chairman of
आओ ब त कर जव न क -CA Arvind Talan आओ ब त कर जव न क, म द ह रह रव न क आमदन बढत ज रह, उमर घटत ज रह द द बढ़ रह ज ड क, प य र बढ़ रह ब ढ क क य कह ब त द व न क.. आओ म न न प गल स मन, पर घट रह ह अन न सब जजय बढ़ रह, ज वनन य चढ़ रह प र न य र आय य द, और ब दल कर फररय द क छ ढ ढ़ ब त प र न स.. आओ ब त कर जव न क.. द दशक क थ ड़ स ब स स ल, ब कस तरह बदल गए ह ल प च डजब क ल च ब क स, एक डजब ह गय पत ह नह चल, श यद म थ ड़ ब ढ ह गय लगन लग सब कह न स.. आओ बढत आमदन पर ख न थ ड़, और ह प ट ह आ म ट ज य द समय अब म ग व क, स थ म ट इम क ट ब वजह क ब हस ब त बस उमर क ब सतम द ख, दस र ट कम ह त ह गई एक चल र ट छ ड़ ब त कर प न क.. आओ ब जमख न ह सकत मरण, चल चल य ग क शरण द ड नह ज त व क कर, क छ स थ क ढ ढ ट क कर न रह जव न न ह ए ब ढ़, क य ढ ढ कह ढ ढ क छ त ल न क स ह न स.. आओ the Chapter, Mr Barry at end of the session also apprised the attendees about William Buck, their offered services, partners, strengths, network and offices. There were total 13 attendees during the session. The ICAI members were allotted 2 CPE hours. William Buck also offered drinks and very delicious nibbles to the attendees. The session was concluded with a vote of thanks by CA Benno Parackal and a token of appreciation to Mr Barry by CA Arvind Talan on behalf of the Chapter. Forthcoming activities November - Annual General Meeting to be held on Friday, 24 th November, 2017 followed by Dinner. Details of the event has already been circulated to all members. Looking forward to a strong attendance like the previous year. The event is a good opportunity for members to share their thoughts and their expectations from the Chapter. This helps the Management Committee to plan events to cater to the wishes of the Members. Members Corner Learn and grow my feelings -CA Arvind Talan Let me start with one phrase which we used to always hear - No limits to learning and truly we learn from all different kind of resources available around us. I was lucky to have associated with our CA Chapter for all this period that I spent in Brisbane and Australia. Be it a social event, technical event or any other forum, I always tried learning something out of it and delivering to my best. To be honest, at every juncture I learnt so much for my life at personal, social, and professional level. I have got some life time friends and memories which could be possible due to our CA Chapter only. When I came on deputation to Brisbane circa 5 years ago, I could not imagine how tough it would be to visualize life without so many good colleagues and family friends which I had got here. I also wonder how I would manage an Aussie boy (my mid-teenager son) whom I take with me back to home country, India. At the same time, I am glad to go back to the land where I grew and
cherished my childhood; a country which made me to visit so much of outside world and having some good mates. We always miss what we left behind and I am lucky to get that back. It is that tag of CA only due to which I am what I am today. It is hard to return anything to the Institute however I would like to put on the records my sincere gratitude to the committee and members of Chapter for enabling me to do something for the growth of the chapter during past few years and getting so much out of it. Disclaimer This newsletter is a compilation of articles and publicly available information to share information only for the benefit of the members of Australian Chapter of ICAI Brisbane Inc. If you are not a member of Australian Chapter of ICAI Brisbane Inc., please delete this email and do not share this email / newsletter with anyone else. These views do not necessarily reflect the views of Australian Chapter of ICAI Brisbane Inc. or its members. Copyrights with Australian Chapter of ICAI Brisbane Inc.